Surrender to a Donovan

Her voice echoed in the enclosed space, and she quickly closed her mouth. On the cement floor her heels clicked. Beside her Sean held what she thought were his own car keys. His brown suit hung over long, muscled limbs, and an intoxicating manly cologne tickled her nostrils. A better-looking specimen she had yet to see up close and personal, and a small part of her treasured the moment—even if it was a totally professional one.

“Nice car,” Sean said as they approached her midnight-blue Volvo.

She almost said she’d won it in the divorce settlement but figured that little tidbit of information was better kept a secret. “I like reliability,” she said.

He nodded. “I can relate to that. Where does your daughter go to day care?”

Retrieving her own set of keys, Tate initiated the automatic door locks and reached for the handle. “Little Darlings Day Care. It’s on Biscayne.”

She leaned into the car to place her purse and bag inside when she glimpsed the passenger-side window. “Damn it!” she cursed before remembering she wasn’t alone. Then on impulse she tried to right herself and banged her head on the interior roof of the car.

“Are you all right?” she could hear Sean asking from behind as his hands went to her hips.

She backed out of the car with Sean’s assistance. Her hand went to her now throbbing head. “Sorry. Yes, I’m fine. But my window is broken.”

“What window?”

She used her thumb to point toward the other side of her car as she started walking in that direction. Sean followed her and was once more privy to her cursing when she noted the back passenger window was also broken.

“Great. Just great,” she said, stepping on shattered glass.

Sean had pulled his cell phone from his pocket and was already talking to someone. Tate was lifting a hand to the door handle when she felt his strong fingers at her wrist.

“Don’t touch anything else. If it was a break-in, the police will need to dust for prints,” he told her.

“A break-in. Right,” she said. With a clutch in her chest, she leaned forward to look through the broken window.

Her gasp made Sean move in closer. “What’s wrong?”

With a hand to her throat, Tate said, “Briana’s car seat is gone. Who would break into a car to steal a baby’s car seat?”

“Come on,” Sean said, moving her away from the car. “Let’s stand over here and wait for the police.”

The police arrived in minutes and did what they called “processing the scene.” They took pictures and did something that would lift prints. Questions were fired at her left and right. “What’s missing?” “What time do you get to work?” “Do you get here the same time every day?” “Park in the same spot?” On and on and on it went until she wanted to scream.

She still needed to pick up Briana, and now her only mode of transportation was being detained. Sean insisted on having the windows fixed, and since she didn’t have the extra five hundred dollars—which was her insurance deductible—Tate didn’t refuse his offer. It was when he offered to take her to get Briana that she tensed a bit more.

“That’s not necessary. I can take a cab,” she told him.

He was already shaking his head. “You’re not taking a cab all the way down to Biscayne and then back to your house,” he said adamantly. “I’m having the car towed the minute the cops are finished. The windows should be fixed by tomorrow afternoon.”

“It’s not a big deal. I can take a cab tonight and then again in the morning to get to work,” she said, afraid to calculate the cost of doing both. Infinity paid her a decent salary for a writer, but that salary had to stretch to cover rent on her apartment and all the expenses that entailed, as well as day care and food for her and Briana. She wasn’t completely destitute, but there wasn’t a whole lot of breathing room within her budget. Still, the thought of her boss going out of his way like that just didn’t feel right to her.

“You’re not taking a cab, and that’s final,” he said in a tone that was supposed to emphasize his words.

It did, to an extent. Tate figured it was rude to continue to turn down his generosity, and that surely wouldn’t bode well as far as her new promotion. So she let the officers get her purse and bag out of the car as she stood across the garage waiting. When they were done and the tow truck had arrived, Sean gave the driver his business card and told him to have the auto-glass shop call him first thing tomorrow morning. She didn’t bristle too much—after all, the garage was a part of the building owned by the Donovans. If her car was vandalized on their property, he might feel responsible.

But when he ushered her to his metallic Mercedes CLS63 coupe, she sucked in a breath.

“What’s wrong? You don’t like my car?” he asked with a half smile that made her insides quiver.

She was shaking her head as he opened the passenger door and motioned for her to get in. “That’s not it,” she said, sliding into the leather seat. “I’m just trying to figure out how Briana’s going to sit in a backseat that’s not much bigger than her.”

* * *

So his car wasn’t equipped for a baby, Sean thought as he drove through rush-hour traffic downtown. That’s because he was a single man with no children. Still, that didn’t stop him from looking through his rearview mirror to the small backseat of the car every few minutes.

Tate hadn’t said another word after getting in and buckling her seatbelt. She wasn’t happy with the developments, he could tell. But there was no way around this. He wasn’t about to let her get a cab to the day care and then to her house. Despite the cost, he just wouldn’t have been able to sleep tonight knowing he’d watched her do such a thing. Especially since he had no other plans for tonight. There was no reason why he couldn’t take the time to pick up her daughter and drive them home. It was a simple act of kindness, he told himself repeatedly.